:)  from my initial post:

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/article-on-fmv-and-stress-6232861

Much already has been written here in past threads. While the search here (upper right corner) won't accept something as short as FMV, you can search for 'virus' or 'mosaic' and find more information. Put either word in 'search' select 'subject' and you fill find several threads. When you have read those, please feel free to ask more questions.

When I first started collecting figs it was a concern to me. Some plants have it worse than others, but now I don't much care.

Welcome to the forum - you will find much information here. :)

Ed,
Welcome to the forum community.

1. These questions have all been asked before and have been discussed on the forum for years.
You can get a lot of answers by reading through past topics starting with the "Start Here" pinned to the Opening Forum page. You will find a web search procedure to Google search the entire web and forum for key words (use site:figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com FMV  in a Google search) and The FAQ with some FMV links and descriptions.
When I started growing figs last Year, FMV was a concern, so I did a little research and observation and came to a few conclusions which I posted in a Topic on the Forum, and several members contributed to the discussion.

2. Mediterranean climates. Virus, not soil borne. Plant Borne vectored by fig mites
3. Possible.
4. Possibly by sucking insects.
5. Possibly if exposed in the right environment.
6. Possibly due to presence of mites in California.
7. Unknown at this time, but DNA testing is available, at a price.
8. Using best cultural practice and reducing stress will produce healthier plants.
9. DNA testing

Good Luck.

I'm with Gina on the subject. I really don't much care. I have started over fertilizing my trees that are showing bad signs and it seems to help.

Thanks all for the responses, and ascpete for your detailed answers.  I have seen a good bit of the info linked online already, but it looks like there is still lots of information to digest.

Ed,
Welcome to the forum!
I would also add that what sometimes looks like a case of fmv, maybe simply a case of a mulnutrition. This is especially true for the pot grown figs.

ed, don't let anyone kid you. it is possible to have figs without fmv. some of us keep the icky virus out, but it's hard. i have clean trees because i burn infected ones

note that only a few of us believe that fmv is evil and should be avoided. most of the very nice [but mistaken'] people here think it's no big deal.

If it freaks you out, grow peaches. If you grow figs, it is a fact of life.

i don't fight about this jon. nor do i criticize people who choose to live with it. my friends think it's no big deal, and they are my friends, including you.

Okay, just a few more FMV questions:

From my reading I find no documentation of the specific mite that spreads FMV from tree to tree living in the US outside of California. Is there any evidence for that mite elsewhere is US?

Is there any documentation of other chewing critters like leafhoppers or beetles being able to spread FMV?

Finally, there is evidence in other species of roots of nearby specimens growing together and spreading pathogens among themselves. Has this been documented in figs? I know figs are amazing but please note that I am not asking about plants in neighboring containers :)

Thanks for the answers

Ed,

A document by University of Agriculture in Turkey  linked in several FMV topics,

Welcome to the Fig Forum.

Best,
Tam

Mike from files i have read on subject -  a study and experiment that worked was they extract the meristem from earliest developement of a plant shoot useing a lab binocular microscope and cultivate it a certain way in sterile enviroment in the lab.

After a year growing the propagated plant in also a sterile environment said plant was indexed and was found to be clean.
But as one can imagine it would be costly to have it done and afterwards may be re-infected .

Martin -- ah yes, that sounds like the same procedure I'd seen referenced.  (Or one of them anyway... it seems there may have been multiple different techniques after the meristem extraction... maybe one involved heat and another some kind of bleaching agent?  I don't remember, because the net of it all was that it wasn't a practical way to avoid FMV).  Anyway, thanks for pointing it out Martin... I don't know where the reference articles are but your description matches what I remember too.  

I guess the technique really doesn't matter anyway in practical terms, because as you point and is pretty apparent, reinfection will happen anyway.  But just in terms of even doing the experiments to try to prove whether or not other little biting/sucking bugs can spread the virus, it's just so expensive and difficult to prove that I don't think anyone's done it rigorously.  But just because it hasn't been proven rigorously that it does happen, that doesn't mean it doesn't happen.  (Just because you can't prove something is true doesn't mean that it isn't true).  I believe it does happen, and there's plenty of anecdotal evidence from others who (like me) live in a place where Aceria fici doesn't live that something is moving these viruses from tree to tree.  I can't prove it, but I think it's true.

Mike   central NY state, zone 5a

<Edit>,
There seems to be a misunderstanding about the two (2) main vectors for spreading Fig Mosaic Virus (FMV). They are Fig Mites and Fig Growers, this is not an opinion, its documented fact. There are several universities in the USA and The Mediterranean, in commercial fig growing regions that have published papers with that statement.

Fig Mites are related to spiders and ticks. They do not cut, tear, rip or munch plant material, they insert <puncture> their "mouth parts" through the plant cell membranes and suck out the plant fluids, in the process their "saliva" inoculates the plant cells with Mosaic Viruses, if they had been feeding on other infected plants. They can survive in unopened dormant buds and figs, but can only survive in temperate zones and do not "over winter".

Fig Growers graft, propagate and circulate infected plant material. They also imported fig cultivars, Capri figs and Fig wasps from the Mediterranean to improve the commercial fig industry. Due to the fact that Fig Mites can survive in figs and closed buds they have been relocated with the wasps and plant material to their new homes in these temperate zones. This is not an indictment, just a statement of known documented facts.

Pete, there's no misunderstanding at all, at least not here with me.  Thanks for being informative to the readers of this thread though about details of the mechanism of infection by A. fici.  I've read those papers too, that describe the mechanism by which Aceria fici infect fig trees with viruses.  Not meaning to split hairs, but inserting mouth parts through membranes to suck out fluids really might involve some tearing.  It's just a matter of what scale (size of object) you look at, and what constitutes "tearing".  They penetrate membranes.  But to focus on details like this entirely misses the point of what I was stating.  I won't quibble over the details about whether the wording should be "tear" or "puncture" or "surgically insert"... the mechanism doesn't really matter so much for the point I was stating.

So let me try it this way.  You have a statement that includes the phrase:  "... the two (2) main vectors for spreading Fig Mosaic Virus (FMV)".  I think you've left out an important word.  I think you are overstating what is documented fact, versus what is unknown.  I think what you meant is more like "... the two (2) main known vectors for spreading Fig Mosaic Virus (FMV)".  (Alternatively, you could substitute "proven" or "documented" for the word "known").  I agree entirely that the two main known/proven/documented vectors for spreading Fig Mosaic Viruses are, as you say, Fig Mites (Aceria fici) and fig growers.  It is documented fact that those are two known vectors.  But there's another question entirely:  Are there other vectors as well?  Unknown.  Maybe.  Maybe not.  There is no documentation of other vectors.  But the fact that nobody has demonstrated conclusively the existence of another vector, does not mean that other vectors don't exist.  It simply means that nobody has yet proven the existence of other vectors.  However, there are some observant researchers who strongly suspect that there are other vectors.  (Similarly I think there are researchers who suspect that the mechanism of infection is so specific that it's unlikely there are other organisms that spread these infections).  Nobody has proven it.  Will anybody do the studies to prove it?  I don't know... given the ubiquity of Aceria fici in the regions where figs are grown commercially, there may be little economic incentive to do such studies.  Especially considering the difficulties (expenses) involved.  But please do not confuse the fact of two documented vectors to in any way mean that it is somehow a documented fact that there are only those two vectors.  That question is simply unanswered, and you can draw no factually-based conclusion about that (until/unless someone does a study that proves another vector).  The existence of A and B does not prove the non-existence of C.

Your statements about overwintering and small scale habitat for A. fici are consistent with my statements as well.  Our logic is the same in this respect.  (I was simply warning people not to conclude that they don't have Fig Mites around simply because they are in a cold climate.  If they've imported trees or any materials that contain some Fig Mites, then until every place where their Fig Mites are living has become incompatible with survival of those little suckers, they cannot prove that they aren't present).  (Consider that even in a frozen winter locale such as ours, if you keep fig trees indoors the mites can survive there, and then still be present around your trees the next season, even after a winter has passed).  I think we are consistent, you and I, in our under statements that one cannot assume the absence of Fig Mites just because you live in a place where they are not typically populous.  A fig grower may well have imported some Fig Mites and failed to eradicate them, even in USDA zone 5a.

This isn't an indictment either, Pete.  I know that you didn't state that there are only two vectors for spreading these viruses, but you did imply it.  ("... the two main vectors").  So I just want to be clear in this discussion.  I think there are still plenty of unknowns, despite the details of what is known.  As far as I've seen, it's still unknown (or unproven) whether there are other vectors.

The discussion reminds me of the old joke:  Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't all out to get you.  :-)

Mike   central NY state, zone 5a

Mike,
My point was to clarify my answer to the questions that were asked. Ed specified the word "documentation" in all his questions, that's what I was addressing as concisely as possible. All the anecdotal information and personal observations are documented in the posted FMV Topics that are available in a Forum website archive search.

No worries Pete, thanks for saying.  But since you had originally addressed your posting to me specifically I thought it appropriate to respond, particularly since you were refuting something I had stated.  I see you've recently edited several of the statements in your posting that I was responding to.  That makes a couple of my response points look a little silly to anyone reading through the thread now.  (I treat these posting threads primarily as discussion forums, and I think open discussion is healthy and helpful.  But I guess the discussion aspect of it appears disjointed if you go back and edit your statements after there has been a response to what you stated).  But no matter -- I'm fairly sure you did that in the interest of clarity rather than anything else.  Still, I won't bother going back to change what I wrote.  My essential points are summed up thus:

• The existence of A and B does not prove the non-existence of C.
• There may well be additional vectors for the spread of the "FMV" viruses, besides Fig Mites (Aceria fici) and Fig Growers.
• It is not a documented fact that those are the only two vectors.  However it is a documented fact that those two things are vectors.

I'm sorry if you were offended by my post. I  had actually written then deleted the first sentence in post #21 which roughly said, " I apologize if my post in any way inferred that you were not knowledgeable on the subject of Fig Mosaic Virus vectors", I deleted it because I though that it sounded condescending.

I am a bit confused because you state that this should be a discussion, which I agree, but it seems that you are turning it into an argument. I personally dislike arguments, but.

The three (3) edits that I made to my Two (2) posts do not change the meaning or intent of my comments in any way nor "disjoints" the  Thread.
In post # 13, I  added " But I dust with Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth and sanitize my implements with a 10% bleach solution anyway".
In post # 20, I deleted your Forum name "MichaelTucson" and added "puncture" per your following post, and noted the edits for future references as I have always done.

Every statement that I have made in this topic has been written by me in many previous posts.

I hope that you will have a happier day.

I think it would be a sad time to eliminate all specimens which exhibit sings of FMV from my collection.  It would be similar to avoiding driving all roads with any potholes - I'd miss out on some very wonderful things.  Panache is my favorite fig.  I've seen some leaves expressing the effects of FMV on my tree but don't see any signs today.  Branches have grown 5'-7' this year with essentially no fertilizers ever given to this tree for the four years it's been in the ground.  Since around 7/24 I've picked several figs on most days until recent cooler weather.  What more could I want?  My Yellow Long Neck is surrounded by a half dozen trees that show FMV with branches rubbing, etc. yet it has not show any symptoms of FMV, has grown vigorously, and is very productive.  I have no idea if it is FMV free or not and don't really care.

Now, some varieties lack vigor and it might be because of being infected with several strains of FMV (I've heard there seven have been identified in some trees at NCGR/Davis by Duarte Nursery).  I've considered having a couple cleaned up and a lab has offered to do this for me for $2,000 per variety.  I am considering it. But I need to decide what I would then do to ensure they stayed clean (or at least some back-up specimens).

Very good information, thanks for sharing.

Best,
Tam